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Peace prize is child’s play

What rapid advances the European Union can make when it puts its collective mind to it!

European Voice

11/21/12, 8:00 PM CET

Updated 4/13/14, 12:05 AM CET

At the last European Council (18-19 October), government leaders spent an inordinate amount of time discussing who should collect the Nobel Peace Prize that is being awarded to the European Union. There was much discussion of how to involve children. Barely a month later, all these details are decided…almost.

The European Commission announced on Monday that the EU would donate the money that goes with the prize – about €1 million – to children in war zones, thus extending the benefits of the “peace dividend”. The challenge now is to identify which war zones.

The Commission has also launched a drawing and writing contest for young Europeans aged between 8 and 24. The winners will be invited to attend the official Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo on 10 December. Entries are open until Sunday (25 November).

The EU’s handling of the peace prize appears to be going the way of Pink Floyd’s “Another brick in the wall”. The meaning and the lyrics hardly matter any more: what counts is to get a children’s choir chanting at the end.